Navarro safety pledges to play at Tech

Ryan Clark will make a delayed arrival to major-college football. Yet, the detour appears to have been more than worthwhile.

Clark, a 6-foot-11/2, 193-pound safety, has made an oral commitment to Texas Tech. He grabbed seven interceptions last season for Navarro College in Corsicana, where he enrolled after failing to meet Division I academic requirements out of Beaumont Ozen High School.

“I think it was the best thing for me,” Clark said Tuesday about going to Navarro. “It helped me get used to doing college work. Plus, I’m playing football, too, with other athletes that are in the same position as me. If I had it to do all over again, I would go to a junior college first. I think it bettered me and my studies, too.”

If Clark is able to graduate from Navarro in December, as he plans, he’ll enroll at Tech in January. He committed to the Red Raiders during a visit with Tech cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell.

“I liked what was coming out of his mouth,” Clark said. “I knew I was going to have a chance to play my first year. It’s a passing team, too, so I’ll get a lot of work covering receivers.”

As a high school senior at Ozen, Clark said he was committed at one time to Missouri and also had a scholarship offer from Kansas State before he missed qualifying.

This recruiting go-round, Clark said he had either been offered or gotten the impression he would be offered scholarships from Tulsa, TCU and Houston.

As a freshman in 2007, his interception total was tied for fifth most in the NJCAA. Clark had one pickoff apiece against Fort Scott (Kan.), Blinn and Kilgore colleges and two against Tyler and Trinity Valley.

His two-interceptions games came in back-to-back weeks in September. That was after Navarro coaches moved Clark from cornerback to free safety four games into the season to address a need area.

In high school, Clark played the cornerback slot opposite blue-chip recruit Ben Wells, who’s now at Texas. Though Navarro coaches recruited him as a corner, Clark found that safety suited him once the switch was made.

“They kept me there,” he said. “I’ve got good range, and I can play the ball.”

Clark said Mitchell told him the Red Raiders also project him as a safety.

Clark said he also was credited last season with about 60 tackles and seven pass breakups. Navarro finished the year ranked No. 4 in NJCAA with a 9-3 record, including a victory over Georgia Military in the Pilgrim’s Pride Bowl.

This story first appeared on our Web site

at 9:55 p.m. Tuesday.